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Bio

Ndume joined the Gorilla Foundation/Koko.org in 1991, after spending his first 10 years at the Cincinnati Zoo. Born in 1981 and already a father of three, 400-pound Ndume was Koko's intended mate. Ndume has also provided the opportunity for us to discover methods of dealing with aberrant behaviors. This information will benefit all captive gorillas.

Koko selected Ndume from a number of available males (via a process akin to "video dating"— see intro video below) and though they became good friends, they did not become mates. The suspected reason for this is that Koko was never given the opportunity (by the zoo community) to have a natural gorilla family group — with multiple females and one male. This female support system is important because of how much bigger and stronger gorilla males are than females.

With Koko's passing (in June of 2018), The Gorilla Foundation is now working to establish a natural gorilla family group or Ndume — to augment his human (great ape) support group, some of whom have been with him for 27 years. See the latest Press Release for an update ...